Battle off Sumatra

The Battle off Sumatra was a naval battle fought off Sumatra between the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine on 3 February 1915 during World War I. The British navy was commanded by Admiral Isaac Starr while the Germans were led by Wilhelm Eduard von Spee, a non-relation to Graf Maximilian von Spee. The battle left Admiral Starr dead and his ship HMS Dartmouth damaged, but the Germans lost three ships and control of the Sumatran trade route.

Background
Admiral Wilhelm Eduard von Spee of the Pacific Fleet of the German Empire planned to raid the British trade routes in the South Pacific by using their fleet of ten battleships to attack merchant convoys. They set up their fleet positions along the trade route from Melbourne in British Australia to Calcutta in British Raj and Hong Kong in British China, blockading the merchant marine of the British Empire in the Pacific Ocean.

The British Royal Navy admiral Isaac Starr led a British fleet of five battlecruisers out of Australia and attacked the German fleet at the blockade site along the trade route. Their clash occurred off the Dutch East Indies off the present-day Indonesian island of Sumatra. The British navy and German navy were close in proximity, and could use their naval guns to super effectivity.

Battle
The Kriegsmarine began the battle with an opening salvo that hit the British capital ship HMS Darmouth in the bridge, killing Starr and his senior officers. But the British continued the fight and HMS Chinese Gordon proved to be a capable ship. It captured two German battleships and Spee was made a prisoner-of-war, while it sunk another ship. The rest of the German fleet retreated to Port Moresby, New Guinea.

Aftermath
The British regained control of the high seas in the Pacific and their trade route, and they cleared Germany's naval presence in the area. Spee was released after the war's end, with his fleet captured in harbor by Australian forces in New Guinea.